Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration

Press Release

Report: IRS Needs To Determine the Appropriate Size and Skills
Of Its Acquisition Workforce

WASHINGTON -- The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) cannot easily identify its
acquisition workforce and ensure it has the skills needed to manage its $31.5 billion
procurement portfolio, concludes a new report from the Treasury Inspector General for
Tax Administration (TIGTA).

Like other Government agencies, the IRS is faced with both increases in procurement
spending and the number of acquisition staff eligible for retirement. TIGTA assessed the
IRS’s efforts to determine the size, skills, and competencies of its acquisition workforce.

TIGTA found that the IRS cannot easily identify all employees who work on acquisition
activities. The IRS’s acquisition workforce is split between contracting officers and
contracting specialists working in the Office of Procurement, and employees in other
offices who perform contracting activities. Although the IRS Office of Procurement
could easily identify its acquisition workforce, it had difficulty identifying the acquisition
workforce working in other offices. These employees, including contracting officers’
technical representatives and program managers, are more difficult to track as part of the
acquisition workforce because their acquisition duties may be performed in addition to
their normal job responsibilities.

Previous TIGTA audits have raised concerns over the adequacy of the IRS’s acquisition
workforce. If the IRS does not take action to improve its acquisition workforce planning,
it may not be able to easily determine whether it has enough people with the right skills
to perform acquisition duties. In addition, the IRS may be understaffed to handle the
anticipated acquisition workload, and may not have all the prerequisite skills to oversee
its procurements.

“Our review found that the IRS is at risk on two counts: wasting scarce resources by
paying more for procurements than necessary and not receiving adequate goods and
services to meet its mission,” said J. Russell George, Treasury Inspector General for Tax
Administration.

TIGTA recommended that the IRS develop and document a Service-wide approach to
ensure that it can identify, track, and monitor the adequacy of its acquisition workforce.
The IRS agreed with TIGTA’s recommendation and is planning to take appropriate
action.